The Katie Johnson Story

In the Stormy Daniels incident, we learned how Donald Trump paid off women to get their silence. He used a cut-off. With Stormy Daniels, Trump used Michael Cohen, Cohen paid off Daniels and then Trump paid Cohen, keeping the Trump name clean. 

Cohen ended up in prison.

In 2016 Katie Johnson (not her name) filed a case in a federal court in California alleging that when she was 13 Jeffrey Epstein had held her as a slave and forced her to have sex with himself and with Trump. That case was dismissed but later filed again in New York, where it was voluntarily withdrawn. 

I couldn't find any evidence that Trump paid off Johnson or that she signed a non-disclosure agreement.  No trial took place. No court ruled on the truth of her claims.

Universal Gerrymandering

When our mentally ill president called for additional gerrymandering in Texas and Gov. Newsom called for gerrymandering California, the obvious prediction was that soon nearly every state in the union would be gerrymandered. That shift has begun. 

Some argue that cheating is the surest way to win an important election.  That might be true. 

A year ago the USA had eight states with independent redistricting commissions. They seemed like the coming thing. 

Tomorrow California will switch to gerrymandering, and several other states may be planning something similar.   

For the moment, Colorado is holding out. We can hope that three or four states will refuse to redistrict. But next year the pressure on holdout states to support unfairly their dominant party will increase.  

Gerrymandering warps the electoral process. Our somewhat unrepresentative democracy will now be even less representative, less trustworthy.   

This did not have to happen. Our leaders made a choice. Voters made a choice.

Goat Walks

 Goat Walks Across Asia

She left the farm 

The night the farmers humped 

Until the cows came home

She ate dry grass in Mongolia

Like oats long downgraded

She slept under stars in 

Stretched out black mud 

Threaded with lights that died 

In the eyes of a nanny

Who made for goats a giant sky?

She asked. It seemed excessive 

Antifa

Why has the FBI has been unable to infiltrate or indict Antifa, founded in December, 1941? 

Last week Antifa was denounced by the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but no arrests have been made. 

There are no arrests because Antifa is mostly imaginary.

In some sense Antifa does exist. On the Internet you can buy an Antifa tee shirt.  I witnessed about 10,000 anti-Fascists (Antifa) gathered at Doyle Park in Santa Rosa on No-Kings Day. 

For MAGA Antifa exists as a political fiction, much as unicorns exist in children's books. 

Unanimous

Maybe I missed something, but didn't every host on MSNBC and every elected national Democrat come out in support of gerrymandering California? All on the same day? In one voice?

Was there nothing to be said against suppressing the Republican vote? 

I keep looking for a Democrat bold enough to insist that Republican voters be treated fairly. In an age where political parties play by Trump rules, that hasn't happened. 

So Trump wins. He has changed us.

There are a few independent people who refuse to endorse gerrymandering. Bernie Sanders sees gerrymandering as a threat to representative democracy. He's been silent, not conforming. He has not endorsed Prop 50. But he isn't a Democrat (he must have his reasons).

If there were a major party defending fair treatment for everyone, Susan and I might join it. 

 

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Trump Changed Us

Trump has badly damaged both political parties. 

The Republicans adopted a Fascist model, including voter suppression, and won.  Now the Democrats have, almost unanimously, adopted voter suppression. "When they go low, we go low."

It's odd what one delusional man can accomplish, but I suppose we should not be surprised. 

The Inferior

Susan and I are still learning basics about the Civil War that remained hidden in high school. 

I recently read that Jefferson Davis and others openly divided white people into two races.

Of course they did. 

White Southerners were descendants of noble folk. When their fathers had defeated the British, they had "fought against a manly foe." But northern white soldiers were "the offscourings of the earth." Their ancestors came from the "bogs and fens" of Ireland and  England, from degenerate vagabonds and swamp people. 

 I think Davis saw a sound society as one where a lowly race did the physical labor; in the North that meant working-class white people. No Confederate would want to associate with such low-class "greasy merchants, filthy operatives. . . ." 

The New England states were composed of "small farmers who do their own drudgery," and so on.  Northern troops would be cowardly, of course, and stupid, not worthy foes. They were not going to put up much of a fight.

No Damn King

 

Plans for Santa Rosa

There is a No Kings Rally & Two Marches scheduled for Saturday, October 18, 2025 in Santa Rosa.

• You can march from Santa Rosa Junior College or from Julliard Park to Doyle Park. The rally  at Doyle Park is set for 11 AM to 3 PM. 700 Doyle Park Drive. 

  Many small towns like Healdsburg have a similar rally on Saturday.

  I did not expect, at 90, to defend democracy in America, but I will try. I don't plan to march. I will bike to Doyle Park. I will stay for less than four hours.  

Glasses

My wife and I went to CVS to get three shots. While we waited, Susan said to me, "Are my glasses on?" (They were.)